What if We Had Lost?

As we move in towards July 4th this year, a lot of ad campaigns have taken a less-than-patriotic stance to sell you products. Gone are the days where consumers were bombarded with nationalistic Americanism. Instead, exporters like Newcastle Brown Ale have taken to a slightly different stance; what if the Brits had won?

It’s a fair question considering how close they had actually come to. Had it not been for the intervention of foreign military advisors, the Colonial Army wouldn’t have had the morale or organization to fend off British forces. Like many many things in life, we got very lucky.

Of course, if the British had won the war, what would it have meant for America? Would we all be speaking with lovely British accents? Eating pies with cold meats stuffed in the middle? Most importantly, would we have been better off?

The question is fairly difficult to answer. History is a shotgun pattern; you never know what kind of pattern you’re going to end up with.

To say that the United States would be an exact copy of Britain is like saying many of the other colonies Britain had conquered still are. While there is British influence around the world prior to their breaking into independence, none of them assimilated directly into culture from England. So, it’s likely that although our politics would have been greatly altered in this supposition, overall, our culture would have to be shaped by the individuals who lived here, and eventually, America would likely gain its independence through time anyway.

Not being physically attached to Great Britain would’ve been a strain on resources, and eventually as we pushed further and further west, more and more people would seek to prepare their own independence and provide for themselves. This would likely mean that the “states” as we know them would be macroscopically divided as collective countries or provinces, but, the important fact is they would each have their own form of controlling government that wasn’t affiliated with The Crown.

What about American culture? Well, it’s likely that it wouldn’t actually change much. Ever heard of Hillbillies? They were seeded by folks from Glasgow, as was much of the American south. Scotland say you’re welcome, by the way. The Irish would still be the first line of workers to build the railroads, and the English would still be our primary source of international trade. Jazz and blues music, American art, the open frontier- it would’ve all still been there for us to grow on and develop.

The most significant change in this case, would be in our government. In effect, congress wouldn’t exist, most likely in change for a parliament instead. A lack of capitalist ideology would’ve greatly shaped our socioeconomic realm, but it certainly wouldn’t have relieved us of the elitists and the class system.

In a way, what we should recognize and celebrate is not how great we are as independent individuals, but how much we’ve accomplished thanks to the world. When we did beat the British, we had very little to actually work with. It was thanks to immigration, trade, and expansionism that we built what we did, and we owe all of that to already developed countries.

I’ll be the first to raise a toast and say thank you to the world this 4th of July. Maybe you and the rest of the world had influenced and generously helped build what we have to celebrate now. We may not have your politics, your obviously superior metric system, or accents that make us all sound more intelligent than we actually are, but, we also beat you, so…